New Jersey Performing Arts Center/NJPAC-Prudential Hall

Bridging the gap between reggae, jazz and more, Beres Hammond and Monty Alexander perform at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. One of the reggae world’s most iconic voices, Beres Hammond fell in love with American rhythm and blues while growing up in his homeland of Jamaica, and today his music reflects those soulful, romantic roots. His smoky-sweet vocals have been compared to Otis Redding, but his four decades of music-making have ranged from funk to digital-infused dancehall to the 2012 reggae chart-topping album One Love, One Life. The influences of jazz pianist Monty Alexander are so numerous and so varied – encompassing bop, reggae and calypso – that critics had to create a new category altogether: “Monty Alexander music.” He’s an effervescent pianist whom The New York Times has called “one of Jamaica’s proudest musical exports.”